acaronar
by bravevulnerability
Summary: 'Someone had kidnapped them. Handcuffed them together in what appeared to be a basement, the longer he studied their surroundings, and left them here with no apparent way out. All while Beckett was in the midst of a cold that suddenly sounds and feels far worse than it had this morning.' An AU take on 4x10, 'Cuffed'.


_acaronar:_

 _(v) to tenderly pull or draw someone closer - to hold, as for affection, comfort, or warmth; to caress, to embrace, to protect._

* * *

Kate whimpers in her sleep, the sound rousing him from his own slumber as she buries it in his shoulder, and Castle shifts, eases his arm around her ribcage and encourages her body closer. He can feel the curl of her limbs against him, the settling of her head heavy on his chest, and he does his best to rub his palm along her back, soothe the rattling noise her lungs continue to emit with every breath.

The heat of her forehead sears his jaw and the coil of her fingers in his shirt tugs him further towards awareness even as he struggles to open his eyes. His hand travels clumsily up the line of her spine, over the collar of the turtleneck concealing her nape - and why the hell had she worn a turtleneck to bed? Especially when she's burning up like this? - to slip into her hair, massage his fingers along her overheated scalp.

Kate hums in approval, the sound weak and congested, and nudges her nose into the side of his throat.

"Doctor," Castle mumbles, his lips grazing the fevered skin of her forehead, the damp edge of her hairline. "Gotta get you to the doctor, Kate."

But she doesn't move, doesn't respond, and he needs to get up, make the doctor's appointment for his wife-

Rick's eyes peel open, his brow immediately furrowing at the grimy ceiling above, the grey lighting bleeding into the foreign space that is most certainly not his bedroom at the loft and - and oh, this wasn't a dream, was it?

"Kate?" he rasps, turning his head, but she's tucked into his side, her face in his neck (at least this part is real enough) and one of her arms laid out beneath his head, leading to the hand that's _cuffed_ to his. "Kate, did you - Beckett, I'm sorry, I know you're not feeling well, but you have to wake up."

She groans quietly against his throat, her brow scrunching against his skin, and there is so much to worry about, but her temperature takes top priority in his mind. Someone had... kidnapped them? Handcuffed them together in what appeared to be a basement, the longer he studied their surroundings, and left them here with no apparent way out. All while Beckett was in the midst of a cold that suddenly sounds and _feels_ far worse than it had this morning.

"I thought Gates ordered you to take the day off," he'd sighed when he'd walked into the precinct that morning to find her sitting at her desk, her head in her hands and her eyes bloodshot, nose red and swollen from the consistent sniffling.

"M'fine, Castle. Just a head cold," she'd murmured, but her body told a different story, her spine bowed and her skin pale, and he had just wanted to take her home, put her to bed and let her sleep the day away. Maybe feed her some soup at some point, keep her hydrated, but ultimately just allow her a chance at rest and recovery that she wouldn't allow herself.

"You push yourself too hard," he'd chastised softly, information they were both well aware of, as he'd placed the travel mug of hot tea in front of her.

He has nothing now - no tea, no water, no food, no medicine. Shit, this was beyond bad. If they were both in normal health, their current predicament would be a pretty huge dilemma, but this? This is catastrophic. How can he keep her safe, how can he get her out of here, when she's burdened with an illness and handcuffed to him in captivity?

"Beckett," he calls again, shifting onto his elbow before realizing he can't lift up without dragging her along with him at an uncomfortable angle.

Castle purses his lips, assesses the loop of her arm behind him and carefully uses their linked hands to ease their combined limbs over his head, drawing them down to his lap and lowering his opposite hand from Kate's back to press into the mattress they've been laid out on.

He cradles his partner to his chest, pushes up until he's in a sitting position with Kate slumped into his side, her body jerking with the harsh tremor that wracks her frame.

"Castle, what're you doing?" she mumbles, drawing her knees up to her chest, into his lap, and this is _so_ unfair on so many levels.

"Trying to determine a way out of here," he sighs, but there's no clear sign of an exit, nothing but a vaulted hatch in the ceiling that he assumes is actually a doorway out of here, but there's no way they could ever reach it, not like this.

"Out?" she echoes in confusion, her head against his shoulder.

"I'm not sure how to explain this, but my best guess is that we were drugged and dumped in this basement," he explains, watching Kate draw her head up to look at him, her eyes bleary and struggling to stay open.

"But we… the crime scene? At the motel?" she replies and oh yeah, _that's_ where they had been before all of this. "Then the house?"

"Must be where we are now," Castle guesses, squeezing her hand when a fit of coughing overtakes her chest, sends her pitching forward.

"My handcuffs?" she chokes out.

"We woke up this way, I swear," he states immediately, pleasantly surprised when the corner of her mouth quirks in the briefest moment of amusement once she catches her breath. It quickly turns to dread when her brow creases, though, and Kate curls inward, dragging their linked hands to her head.

"God, Castle, you gotta get away from me," she groans, digging her thumb into one of her temples. "I'm gonna get you sick."

"Beckett," he huffs, rolling his eyes even as he buries his fingers in her hair without thinking, tries to soothe the pulsing of her skull with the massage of his fingertips again. "That is really my last concern. All I care about is getting us both out of here and making sure you're okay."

"Just a cold," she grits out.

"That can quickly turn into more if not treated properly," he grimaces, sucking in a breath when she leans into him, pressing her forehead to his clavicle, but he doesn't hesitate in banding his free arm around her, letting her seek refuge there. "Don't worry, Kate. Just rest, I'll find us a way out."

* * *

She blinks awake to Castle yelling.

"Hey! I know you're up there! My partner is sick!"

Kate shifts against his chest, the side of her face pressed to his sternum overheating, her vision blurry even as she lifts her gaze to see the angle of Castle's jaw as he shouts at the ceiling.

"Just - leave her at the nearest hospital. She won't even remember what happened," he continues to bargain, but she doesn't hear anyone answer him. "Come on, please! You'll still have me! I have money!"

And then his words register, what he's bargaining for - her freedom, her life. But not his.

"Castle," she grumbles, her attempt at a growl falling flat, shoving on his chest with the hand that drags his along with it, but her fingers merely trip down his ribs. Her strength has been totally shot to hell.

"Oh, hey, you're awake," he murmurs, the softness of his voice a sharp contrast to his previous tone, his eyes a crisp blue when she manages to find his gaze in the dimness of the room. "I'm sorry, hope I didn't worsen the headache-"

"I'm not going anywhere without you," she argues, shifting away from him to attempt sitting up straighter, tugging on him until he follows her shaky ascent to her feet.

"Kate," he warns while her traitorous body trembles, threatening to collapse at any moment.

She had known the sore throat and stuffy nose had worsened into something severe last night, had it confirmed this morning when she had woken with a fever and a cough so brutal it broke her chest wide open, wracked the bones of her body that felt like glass, so hard that she'd become dizzy. But she had expected today to be an easy case, didn't think it could hurt to go into the precinct, use the last of her brain power before that left her too.

What she wouldn't give to go back now and just crawl back into bed this morning, accept her body's defeat, maybe let Castle stop by and take care of her like he is now.

"There has to be some other way," she coughs out, burying her face in the crook of her elbow to muffle the burst of her lungs, but her entire body sways with the constriction of her throat.

And then her spine feels as if it's snapping in half, her chest about to cave in, collapse and take her down with it, and she can't - she can't do it.

Her knees waver and Castle has to hook his free arm around her waist, press half of his chest against her back to keep her upright, but no, they have to get out of here. Together.

They need to escape, but she can't stop shaking, can't even stand up for more than a minute before her vision goes black and Castle is whispering in her ear as he lowers her back to the floor.

* * *

When Ryan and Esposito finally find them, peering down at them from up above, Kate is passed out in his lap, her body huddled into his chest. She's been asleep for a long time, since the last time she had woken and he'd tried to feed her the beef jerky he'd had stored away in his pocket, but she hadn't been able to keep it down. She was limp and dehydrated after the hours spent in the basement, fruitlessly searching for an alternative escape route that didn't exist. He had attempted to break down one of the opposing walls when they'd shuffled along the expanse of the basement together during her final moments of consciousness and he'd sworn he could hear the sound of breathing on the other side.

But then the breathing had turned to growling, animalistic snarls, and no way was he going to be able to save them from an actual beast on top of everything else.

So he had walked Kate back to the mattress, sat down and accepted their fate, prayed for a miracle while she'd rasped out an apology.

"This is in no way your fault," he'd protested instantly, but she had sighed, her chapped lips in a deep frown.

"If I would have just stayed home, we wouldn't be in this situation. If I'd been smart, stopped pushing so hard, then we'd both be safe," Kate had admitted, her throat bobbing with a thick swallow that had elicited a painful wince across her face. "If I was healthy, we may have been able to find a way out, but I'm - I'm useless like this. I can't even stay awake, Castle, I'm so sorry."

"Shh, stop," he'd murmured, his lips to her forehead as she finally let herself sway into the embrace of his arm around her back, gone slack against the wall of his body.

He'd held her because he was afraid to let her go, couldn't leave her anyway, even if he'd wanted to. He'd stroked his fingers through her hair and tried to focus on the stuttered rhythm of her breath escaping her lips, fanning out across the exposed skin of his neck.

"They'll find us, Kate. I promise you're getting out of here," he'd murmured, pressing the promise into the skin above her eyebrow.

And they had. By some miracle, they had.

"Ryan, Espo, we need a medic," he'd called up immediately, his heart ricocheting off of his ribs as it beat wildly through his chest, spread hope through his veins as the boys had hustled to get help.

They rescue Beckett first, Ryan freeing her from the bracelet of the metal cuff before a team of paramedics carries her up the ladder they'd lowered through the basement's opening, and Castle can't remember the last time he felt so damn grateful.

* * *

The next time she wakes, Castle's fingers are in her hair again, combing through the strands, soothing the waves of agony lapping through her system, and she turns her face towards the soft ministrations, the comfort of his touch. She doesn't have to open the dead weights of her eyes to eventually realize they're no longer in the hopeless prison of the basement, the faint smell of antiseptic, the glow of blue and red pressing against the closed lids of her eyes, and the swell of sounds - voices, sirens, squad cars - all around only confirming her assumption.

Kate peels her eyes open after a few minutes, sure enough finding Castle perched right beside her in the ambulance, his thumb stilling at her temple when he notices her awareness.

"Hey," he murmurs, a gentle smile spreading across his lips. "Feeling a little better?"

"Yeah," she croaks, trying to clear her throat, but Castle is already reaching past her, presenting her with a bottle of water that he slips a straw into. She takes a grateful sip of the liquid, hums at the cool cascade of water down the raw interior of her throat that aids in rehydrating her with the IV drip attached to her left hand. "Little better. But how?"

"Ryan and Esposito managed to track us down," he explains, withdrawing the water, but setting it down within reach. "You were severely dehydrated. Also, turns out your common cold had just entered the beginning phases of pneumonia, Beckett. And it could have become so much worse without proper care. Got you out just in time."

"Contagious?" she murmurs, watching him huff in exasperation.

"Yes, but they gave me anti-cold medication. Should be fine," Castle waves her off and Beckett catches his hand, draws their tangled fingers to rest atop the lattice of her ribs.

He had saved her life today, upping her in their little competition, but without him, she doesn't know if she would have made it through this ordeal in the state she was in, is certain she would be far worse off than she is now.

"If you get sick, I'm returning the favor," she announces, doing her best to muster a smile for him, but he's already grinning back at her, his eyes a riveting shade of blue that illuminates the dimly lit space of the ambulance.

"Deal, but next time, Beckett," he murmurs, leaning in to dust his lips along her forehead, a gesture she's become a little too intimately acquainted with over the last few hours. "Let's do it without the cuffs."

* * *

 **A/N: A fill for the tumblr anon who prompted - "** _Beckett shows up to work with a cold/sinus infection/bronchitis, etc. during 4x10. Once they're cuffed together, Kate feels bad since she'll probably get Castle sick, while he just wishes he could make her feel better."_


End file.
